• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.390-390
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• 2010

Superconducting proximity effects of Nb/Si(111) were investigated with scanning tunneling microscopy(STM) and scanning tunneling spectroscopy(STS). A highly-doped($0.002\;{\omega}{\diamondsuit}cm$) Si wafer pieces were used as substrate and Nb source was thermally evaporated onto the atomically clean silicon substrate. The temperature of the silicon sample was held at $600^{\circ}C$ during the niobium deposition. And the sample was annealed at $600^{\circ}C$ for 30 minutes additionally. Volmer-Weber growth mode is preferred in Nb/Si(111) at the sample temperature of $600^{\circ}C$. With proper temperature and annealing time, we can obtain Nb islands of lateral size larger than Nb coherence length(~38nm). And outside of the islands, bare Si($7{\times}7$) reconstructed surface is exposed due to the Volmer-Weber Growth mode. STS measurement at 5.6K showed that Nb island have BCS-like superconducting gap of about 2mV around the Fermi level and the critical temperature is calculated to be as low as 6.1K, which is lower than that of bulk niobium, 9.5K. This reduced value of superconducting energy gap indicates suppression of superconductivity in nanostructures. Moreover, the superconducting state is extended out of the Nb island, over to bare Si surface, due to the superconducting proximity effect. Spatially-resolved scanning tunneling spectroscopy(SR-STS) data taken over the inside and outside of the niobium island shows gradually reduced superconducting gap.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.5-8
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• 2006

The growth properties of MOD-YBCO films were investigated. To enhance the growth rate of YBCO layer and inhibit the build-up of HF gas during the annealing process in TFA-MOD for YBCO coated conductors the method of low pressure annealing was employed. Total pressure was changed from 700Torr to 1Torr and its effect on growth of YBCO films was compared with atmospheric one. The lower Pressure was effective to control of the pore size in MOD method . Surface morphology of YBCO films processed at low total pres sure was rough and composed of random YBCO (103) grains. But large pores, usually observed at atmospheric process in MOD disappeared and also the number of pores was reduced at low pressure annealing. Also discussed ate the effects of Fluorine-free Y and Cu precursor solution on the development of microstructure. Dense surface me phology and with less and small pores can be provided through controlling Fluorine content.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.14-17
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• 2007

The slot-die coating & calcination process was adopted to fabricate the long YBCO precursor films on the buffered metal tape for the $2^{nd}$ generation coated conductors. To obtain the smooth and crack-free surface of long YBCO precursor films, the parameters of slot-die coating and the process variables of calcination step must be optimized simultaneously in reel-to-reel method. Among the parameter of slot-die coating process, the viscosities of the precursor solution was controlled from 60cP to 200cP to obtain the thicker films from on single coating. The slot-die gap, the injection rate of precursor solution, the moving speed of buffered metal tape etc. are controlled lot the full coverage and smooth surface of YBCO precursor films. The slot-die coated films are moved through the tube furnace with predetermined heating profiles in humid oxygen ambient The YBCO precursor films was identifed with $Y_2O_3,\;BaF_2$, and CuO phase by XRD and consisted of fine grains of about 20nm size observed by FE-SEM. The YBCO films show the critical current density over $MA/cm^2$ using the precursor films formed by the continuous slot-die coating & calcination process.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.65-70
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• 2006

Transient heat transfer caused by an impulsive heating in subcooled liquid nitrogen is investigated experimentally. This study is part of out ongoing efforts directed to a stable cryogenic cooling system lot superconducting fault current limiters (SFCL). A thin heater attached by epoxy on one surface of a GFRP plate is immersed in liquid-nitrogen bath at temperatures between 77 K and 55 K. A strong heat flux up to $150W/cm^2$ is generated lot 100 ms, and the temperature of the heater sulfate is measured as a function of time. The behavior of bubbles on the heating surface can be explained by comparing the measured temperature history for vertical and two horizontal (up and down) orientations. It is concluded that the subcooling of liquid nitrogen below 70 K is very effective in suppressing bubbles, resulting in better thermal protection and faster recovery from an impulsive heat.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.11-16
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• 2006

Critical current densities were measured for a bicrystalline $(Sm_{0.8}Dy_{0.2})Ba_2Cu_3O_7$ film under various magnetic fields $({^{\rightarrow_{H}}}_a)$. The fields were varied from -0.7KOe to +0.7KOe for various orientations with respect to the film surface. The curves of the critical current densities $(J_{cb})\;vs\;{^{\rightarrow_{H}}}_a$ showed the well known butterfly-like hysteretic curves. Our data could be analyzed for the two components of field, which are normal and parallel to the film surface, respectively. We combined the effect of $H_\perp$ deduced from the data for the normal field $(\theta=90^{\circ})$ and the effect of $H_\parallel$ deduced from the data for the almost parallel field $(\theta=2^{\circ})$. Our analyses indicate that $(J_{cb})$ depends on the two components of flux density at the grain boundary. All the experimental data for various ${\theta}s$ fit well to this new formula which was obtained by multiplying the factors deduced from the field dependences of these two components.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.13-16
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• 2010

The Lorentz force distribution of a high $T_c$ superconducting tape with increasing transport currents in magnetic field ($H_a$) was visualized. The external magnetic field was applied normally to the coated conductor tape surface after zero-field cooling, and the transport current ($I_a$) was increased stepwise from 0 to 90 % of the values of the critical current ($I_c$ ($H_a$)) at applied filed, Ha. The field distribution (H(x)) near the sample surface across the tape width (2w) was measured using the scanning Hall probe method. Applying an inversion to the measured field distribution, we obtained the underlying current distribution (J(x)), from which the magnetic induction, B(x) was calculated with Biot-Savart law. Then Lorentz force per unit length was calculated using F(x)=J(x)${\times}$B(x), which appears to be very inhomogeneous along the tape width due to the complicated distributions of J(x) and B(x).

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.30-35
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• 2017

The effects of the crystallographic orientation and sample thickness on the magnetic levitation forces (F) and trapped magnetic field (B) of single grain YBCO bulk superconductors were examined. Single grain YBCO samples with a (001), (110) or (100) surface were used as the test samples. The samples used for the force-distance (F-d) measurement were cooled at 77 K without a magnetic field (zero field cooling, ZFC), whereas the samples used for the B measurement were cooled under the external magnetic field of a Nd-B-Fe permanent magnet (field cooling, FC). It was found that F and B of the (001) surface were higher than those of the (110) or (100) surface, which is attributed to the higher critical current density ($J_c$) of the (001) surface. For the (001) samples with t=5-18 mm, the maximum magnetic levitation forces ($F_{max}s$) of the ZFC samples were larger than 40 N. About 80% of the applied magnetic field was trapped in the FC samples. However, the F and B decreased rapidly as t decreased below 5 mm. There exists a critical sample thickness (t=5 mm for the experimental condition of this study) for maintaining the large levitation/trapping properties, which is dependent on the material properties and magnitude of the external magnetic fields.

• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.137-143
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• 2003

In measuring the microwave surface resistance of high-Tc superconductor (HTS) films using the dielectric-loaded cavity resonator method, one of the most important factors that limit the measurement sensitivity is the measurement error in the loss tangent ($tan\delta$) of the dielectric rod placed inside the cavity. We have measured the effective surface resistance ( $R_{S}$ $^{eff}$) of$ YBa_2$$_Cu3$$_{7-{\delta}}$ (YBCO) films and the $tan\delta$ of rutile ($TiO_2$) using the 'two-tone'method suggested by Kobayashi et at. [IEEE, MTT-S Digest, 495, (2001)], which enables simultaneous measurements of both the $R_{S}$ $^{eff}$ fof HTS films and the $tan\delta$ of the rutile with high sensitivity. A rutile-loaded cavity resonator with the $TE_{012}$ and $TE_{021}$ resonant frequencies at 13.67 - 14.01 GHz is used for this purpose. At temperatures where the two modes do not couple with other modes, the $R_{S}$ $^{eff}$ of YBCO films and $tan\delta$ of rutile measured by the two-tone method appear to match well with the corresponding values measured using the reported $tan\delta$ values of sapphire within 10 %. Usefulness of the 'two-tone' method for microwave characterization of HTS films and dielectrics is discussed.d.ielectrics is discussed.ussed.

• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.75-79
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• 2003

YBCO films were deposited with various thicknesses from 100nm to 1.6$\mu\textrm{m}$ on single crystal $SrTiO_3$ substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The effects of different deposition conditions, especially different deposition rates by means of changing the pulsed laser frequency up to 200Hz, on the J$_{c}$ value were studied. For YBCO film with the thickness of 200nm, the $J_{c}$ value of $2.1MA/\textrm{cm}^2$ has been achieved under the high deposition rate of 3.2nm/s (190nm/min). The $J_{c}$ can be maintained greater than $1M/\textrm{cm}^2$ with the thickness less than 1$\mu\textrm{m}$. The X-ray analysis was used to examine the texture, crystallization and surface quality. The SEM was employed to analyze the surface of YBCO, and it was shown the surface of YBCO film became rougher with increasing the thickness. There were many large singular outgrowths and networks of outgrowths on the surface of YBCO films which lowered the density of thick YBCO film. The outgrowth network was probably the a-axis YBCO corresponding to XRD $\theta$-2$\theta$scan and $\chi$-scan which were used to characterize a-axis orientation of YBCO film. The reason for J$_{c}$ declining with increasing the thickness was studied and discussed.sed.

• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.58-63
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• 2005

We investigated the surface oxidation behavior of cube-textured polycrystalline nickel at various oxidation conditions. Cube-textured NiO film was formed on a cube-textured polycrystalline nickel regardless of oxidation conditions but different growth behavior of NiO crystals was observed depending on the oxidation conditions. The introduction of water vapor into $O_2$ did not affect the texture evolution, but rough and porous microstructure was developed. Microstructure of NiO film tends to be denser as the oxygen partial pressure increases. It is interesting that (111) peak of theta - two theta diffraction pattern started to get stronger in air atmosphere and (111) plane became the major texture in the substrate oxidized in high purity argon gas. Small amount of high index crystallographic plane NiO peak crystal was observed when $N_{2}O$ was used as an oxidant while only (200) plane crystal was formed in dry $O_2$ atmosphere. Flat and smooth surface was changed into rough faceted one when ramping rate to oxidation temperature was faster. The grain size of NiO was decreased when the oxygen partial pressure was low. It was also observed that the modification of nickel surface suppressed the development of (200) texture.